APY
Anglo Pacific Group
stock NYSE

risk-adjusted returns matter more than simply chasing the highest APY,

APY without source of yield is just astrology with numbers

SPAXX is about 3.25% APY right now, and on Fidelity that’s one of multiple options you can set as your “core account”. Any cash in the account is automatically earning in this DAILY without any work to do on the investors part.

the question that collapses your whole list is just: can it withdraw, or can it only act inside a scope. everything after that is downstream of it.

an unlimited token approval can genuinely pull funds out of your wallet, that's the drain vector people actually eat. a scoped key or proxy that can only do set actions, place and cancel orders, manage a position, can't transfer out no matter who's driving it. same "non-custodial" label, completely different blast radius.

that's also why your Q5 beats the APY question. with a withdraw-incapable setup a compromised operator means bad trades, not a drained wallet, so the damage is bounded. the checklist that actually holds up: can it move funds out, then can i revoke and how fast. the yield doesn't matter till those two have answers.

APY isn't everything

"non-custodial" only tells you where your keys are andnot what you signed away. You can hold your seed and still get drained by an approval you clicked months ago. So my rule before signing... can it move funds without me signing again, and can i revoke it myself without the app's frontend existing. if either answer's bad, APY doesn't matter.

that helps, thanks. automated range management is the attractive part, but i’d still want to see what happens when price gaps through the band or incentives dry up. “set and forget” can hide rebalance costs and smart contract risk, so the useful comparison would be net returns after fees and drawdowns, not just headline APY. have you seen a full cycle performance chart for those vaults?

Yes. See Leemo's tweet [here](https://x.com/i/status/2075635094195228825) breaking down the math.
Oliver explains [here](https://forum.polkadot.network/t/validators-up-85-nominators-down-70-staking-rewards/18098/11?u=gr33nhatt3r) that
> Nominators are not slashable anymore since the recent staking updates. Their stake therefore does not improve the security of Polkadot anymore. Surely this justifies lower APY.
> Nominators are not “paying the price”. Nominators are just delivering less value to Polkadot which is why they get less rewards.

I'll start.
I think most people spend way too much time chasing the highest APY.
A 1–2% difference in yield often isn't worth the extra smart contract risk, bridge risk, liquidity issues, or the time spent constantly moving funds around.
Yet every day I see people jumping between protocols just to squeeze out a little more yield.
Maybe I'm wrong.
So I'm curious:
What's one opinion about DeFi that would get you downvoted?
Could be about:
\- Stablecoins
\- Yield farming
\- Ethereum vs. L2s
\- Aave, Morpho, Spark, etc.
\- Security
\- UX
\- Wallets
\- Anything else
Let's hear the unpopular opinions.

Using AAVE as collateral doesn’t generate any yield, there’s 0% APY for that token. You can still borrow against it but you won’t “earn coin lending it out.”
That being said, I do borrow USDC against my AAVE using their platform and I use it to buy other token that I believe will outperform in the coming years.

Protocol 27, codenamed Zipper, [went live on Stellar mainnet on July 9](https://x.com/StellarOrg/status/2074902336393060391), shipping auth delegation, bundled signature entries, and replay protection. That same day, [Alchemy joined Stellar's tier-1 validator set](https://x.com/StellarOrg/status/2074912016347668655), participating directly in SCP consensus. The UNDP and SDF [extended their partnership](https://stellar.org/press/undp-and-stellar-development-foundation-extend-partnership-to-scale-proven-digital-payment-solutions) to make blockchain-based digital payments a permanent UNDP capability through 2027, scaling results from five country pilots.
# Protocol 27 and Network Infrastructure
Protocol 27 activated on Stellar mainnet July 9. The Zipper upgrade ships auth delegation as a first-class smart account feature, combines all signer auth into one entry per transaction, simplifies simulation, and prevents signature replay.
CAP-711 adds built-in delegation support for modular custom accounts. CAP-712 fixes a signature vulnerability: the standard authorization pre-image did not include the signer's address, creating a replay risk when private keys are shared across accounts during simultaneous signer rotation. Both CAPs were discussed at the [July 8 Stellar Developers Meeting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1cDDGv7_o).
Alchemy now participates directly in SCP consensus as a tier-1 validator, adding to its existing Stellar RPC and read support. At Thursday's developer meeting, u/0xkaancar presented [CAP-0084 and CAP-0085](https://github.com/stellar/stellar-protocol/tree/master/core) for community review.
# Institutional Activity
The UNDP and SDF [extended their partnership](https://stellar.org/press/undp-and-stellar-development-foundation-extend-partnership-to-scale-proven-digital-payment-solutions) through 2027, converting five country pilots into standing UNDP operational infrastructure. Pilots across Haiti, Kenya, Syria, Guatemala, and The Gambia cut transaction costs from 10% to 2% and achieved 100% reliability in low-connectivity settings.
M1X Global [raised $8.5 million](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/m1x-global-announces-further-funding-led-by-paradigm-totalling-8-5-million-302819729.html) led by Paradigm to scale USDM1, a U.S. Treasury-backed sovereign bond issued natively on a public blockchain by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. DFNS provides wallet and banking infrastructure; USDM1 is integrated into institutional collateral workflows at Bank of America, Citadel Securities, and Virtu Financial and funds quarterly UBI payments to Marshall Islands citizens. DFNS [detailed the setup](https://dfns.co/article/announcing-m1x) across Stellar, Canton, and Solana.
STBL [published Q2 milestones](https://x.com/i/article/2075543827264499712): USST reached 5 million tokens minted on Stellar, and Hashlock and Cyfrin completed security audits. OpenZeppelin and T-REX Network [announced a partnership](https://www.openzeppelin.com/news/openzeppelin-and-trex-network-partner-to-advance-institutional-compliance-infrastructure) to deliver ERC-3643 as an audited library component and extend T-REX Protocol to non-EVM networks, with a Stellar-native implementation already complete.
# Consumer Wallets
Normal Finance [expanded its non-custodial wallet](https://normalfi.substack.com/p/normal-is-now-multi-asset) to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana alongside XLM in a single app. Stellar remains the core settlement layer; USDC deposits earn yield via Blend and DeFindex.
[MoneyGram is now live inside Normal Finance](https://normalfi.substack.com/p/moneygram-is-live-in-normal) as a cash on/off-ramp, covering 500,000+ locations across 200+ countries. Users deposit cash and receive cryptocurrency directly, or reverse the flow to cash out.
# Developer Infrastructure
OpenZeppelin published [step-by-step guides](http://docs.openzeppelin.com/relayer/1.5.x/guides/stellar-relayer-gcp-operator-guide) for running its Relayer Service in teams' own AWS and GCP environments, covering compute, state management, key security, fee bumping, and RPC failover.
[Stellar Raven](https://x.com/i/article/2075371500324929536), an MCP server built by u/kalepail, aggregates Stellar documentation, tools, and community intelligence into a single connection for AI agents and builders. The companion [Stellar Skills directory](https://skills.stellar.org/) curates context files teaching agents about Stellar contracts, SDKs, and tooling. [Mercury (Xycloo Labs)](https://x.com/xyclooLabs/status/2074208030837878880) launched as a paid, production-ready indexing service after open testing, covering Soroban events, webhooks, retroshades, and RPC access.
# DeFi
DeFindex's APY Stabilizer received a [completed audit from Rvinci Security](https://twitter.com/rv_inc/status/2075591375119138929). The two-week engagement, concluding June 2026, covered role-based access controls, fee bounds, accounting invariants, and cross-contract interaction security across two Soroban contracts. All findings were addressed or acknowledged. DeFindex ranks in the top 10 DeFi protocols on Stellar by TVL.
The July 2026 [SCF Demo Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unddHWrZnOs) featured 75 awarded projects live on Stellar. Highlighted presentations included Inference, a formal verification language, and Lumen Loop, an ecosystem content aggregator and project directory. The SCF has awarded $7.7 million across 75+ projects in 2026.
# Lightning Round
* Open Standard's OUSD, backed by 140+ companies including Stripe, Visa, and BlackRock, is [launching on Stellar](https://x.com/i/article/2074068996912218112), Solana, Base, and Polygon, splitting reserve interest with distribution partners rather than concentrating it at the issuer.
* ArcusX [recorded its first transaction on Stellar mainnet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvUVNoXwFo), demonstrating the end-to-end task-based payment workflow via Soroban.
* Untangled Finance described OctoPos, its multi-chain DeFi position and risk monitoring API, in a [July interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5TRa9Zzi8), including real-time monitoring built after the February Blend Oracle exploit.
* The SCF [updated Build Award guidelines](https://stellar.gitbook.io/scf-handbook/scf-awards/build-award/budget-and-deliverable-guidelines): teams that miss a deadline without prior notice forfeit remaining tranches; completion expected within 3 months of the prior payment.
* A new [stellar/stellar-protocol discussion](https://github.com/orgs/stellar/discussions/1974) opened on atomic contract migrations using a `__migrate` function pattern.
* The [Stellar Indexer SDK](https://jsr.io/@stellar-indexer/stellar-indexer-sdk) entered public beta on JSR, providing direct access to live Soroban contract data with protocol extensions for Blend and Soroban Domains.
* [Stellar Wallets Kit](https://jsr.io/@creit-tech/stellar-wallets-kit) from Creit Tech unifies Soroban dApp wallet integration across Freighter, xBull, Albedo, and Rabet behind a single API.
* SocketFi released [u/socketfi/server](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@socketfi/server), a Node.js paymaster SDK for Express, Next.js, NestJS, Fastify, and serverless runtimes.
* Stellar Brazil opened [Stellar Summit attendee registration](https://luma.com/wvcqg77b?tk=XN51Nw).
# Upcoming Events
* **July 10** [Monthly Stellar Ecosystem Update](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1524824962593067008), X Spaces
* **July 10** [Stellar Chile Community Call](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1394437062421250159), Discord
* **July 10** [Stellar Town Hall](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1499821622356607010), Discord
* **July 13** [Weekly Brazilian Ambassador Meeting](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1464247285474136135), Discord
* **July 14** [StarMaker Community Call](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1394227738725974128), Google Meet
* **July 15** [Stellar Ecosystem Impact: Founders & Investor Mixer](https://luma.com/ipggktuu), Nairobi, Kenya
* **July 16** [Stellar Developers Meeting](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1496911886321713163), Discord
* **July 16** [E.Africa Weekly Community Call](https://discord.com/events/897514728459468821/1483896022064435271), Discord
* **July 18** [Stellar Builders Camp, Goa Edition](https://luma.com/ajcns4mc), Goa, India
* **July 18** [Built in Nairobi: Stellar Impact Studio Demo Day](https://luma.com/xzvdmrt0), Nairobi, Kenya
# Ambassador Activity
Stellar Indonesia ran the Build on Stellar Bootcamp in Bandung on July 4. A Yogyakarta bootcamp the prior week had 35 builders deploy MVPs to Stellar mainnet in two days. 13 new ambassadors from Solo were officially onboarded.
Stellar Philippines hosted StellarX PH Demo Days in Mindanao (July 4) and Metro Manila (July 10). A bootcamp at Baliuag University drew 115 builders and yielded 71 project submissions.
Starmaker (LATAM) ran Pulso Halftime Demo events simultaneously in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Bogotá on July 6. Stellar Turkey organized a community meetup in Istanbul on July 10.
# What to Watch
* **Protocol 27 tooling adoption**: Zipper is live on mainnet; watch for wallet SDK updates, relayer integrations, and dApp migrations to the new auth delegation and bundled auth entry model.
* **CAP-0084 and CAP-0085**: both are under active community review; the July 16 developer meeting continues the discussion.
* **APAC Stellar Hackathon**: final submission deadline July 15, Demo Day July 18, Grand Finale July 24.
* **Nairobi activity**: Stellar Ecosystem Impact investor mixer July 15 and Built in Nairobi Demo Day July 18.
* **USDM1 institutional integration**: watch for formal reporting on live collateral use at Bank of America, Citadel Securities, and Virtu Financial.

Stay in the loop 👉 [lumenloop.com](http://lumenloop.com)

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen...
Where do you think they get an additional 100% APY? If that doesn't trigger your scam detection senses then they need tuning.

We partnered with Trading Strategy platform, which is basically an aggregator of vaults. Our product CORE3 with its agent-readable risk benchmark Probability of Loss, covers the risk of the project behind the vault, not the vault APY.
Most people assume that higher yield means more risk. But the data shows different:
High-yield vaults come from high-risk issuers, obviously. Low-yield vaults come from lower-risk issuers. And there are risky projects issuing vaults paying almost nothing, a surprise.
So, the yield rate alone fails to signal issuer risk and tells you nothing about the issuer's risk exposure.

Robinhood is offering 7% APY. But on $300,000 that would only equal $21,000 a year….

I wrote up a protocol autopsy on Ethena because the usual surface-level takes miss the part that matters: where the funds sit, how the yield is actually produced, and what breaks first if the market turns.

The short version is that Ethena is not interesting because it is “high APY.” It is interesting because the risk profile depends on a few concrete failure paths: basis trade stress, custody and counterparty exposure, depeg behavior, and what happens if the control assumptions stop holding under pressure.

What I tried to separate in the write-up:
* real yield vs subsidy
* user-level loss paths vs protocol-level design risk
* what is actually controllable by the team
* what is just market risk dressed up as product risk
My view is that most people ask the wrong question here. The useful question is not “is Ethena good or bad?” It is: under what exact conditions does the structure stop behaving the way users think it will?

Curious how others here would frame the main failure mode for USDe / sUSDe. Is the real risk market structure, custody, governance, or something else?